(17th – 20th AUGUST 1989)
O.K. Odongkara and J.E. Reynolds of the SEC group undertook a short tour of markets in the Tororo and Mbale Regions as part of the preliminary reconnaisance exercise being conducted in all regions covered by the Project. The tour involved three of the major town fish markets in Eastern Uganda -- Tororo, Mbale, and Busia. In addition, valuable information was gained on patterns of trade in many of the minor rural markets of Tororo District. Although remote from the main commercial and administrative centres, these minor markets play an extremely critical rôle in channelling fish protein to those who constitute the vast majority of the regional populations -- namely, the residents of dispersed local farming communities.
At each of the towns and markets visited, the team met and held discussions with Fisheries Department staff, local authorities, traders, and other community residents. The tour itinerary and list of persons met is provided in Annex 1. Regional office records were also examined insofar as possible. These records, along with some complementary information gathered through field interviews, are summarised in the tables and figures presented in Annex 2. Tororo Region data are presented in Tables 1 – 7, and Figures 1 – 6; Mbale Region data are presented in Tables 8 – 9, and Figures 7 – 8. Price information for selected markets in both regions is given in Table 10.
The Ag. RFO and several of his staff met and briefed the team on Departmental activities and organisation in their region, and also provided access to office statistical records. The Region is staffed by the Ag. RFO, 7 AFDOs, and 9 FAs, stationed variously at the Regional Office in Tororo Town, the Busia office, and at a number of markets and landings. The staffing situation is generally quite good in comparison with other regions; in common with the situation elsewhere, however, inadequate working facilities and accomodation seriously impede job performance.
Tororo is principally a marketing region. There are 19 markets at which the Fisheries Department records statistics, as well as numerous smaller ones which are only intermittently enumerated or not enumerated at all. Available records for July 1989 indicate that the markets handled a total of about 150 tonnes of fresh and 168 tonnes of processed fish, as shown in Table 1 of Annex 2. It may be noted also that over 80% of the overall trade volume was handled by four principal markets, as follows: Busia, 98 tonnes or 31%; Tororo, 85 tonnes or 27%; Pallisa, 48 tonnes or 15%; and Malaba, 28 tonnes or 9%.
Regional production for July is nowhere near these figures on marketed volumes. Production for that month amounted only to some 74 tonnes of fresh and 17 tonnes of processed fish (Table 2). These yields are derived mainly from the five Lake Victoria landings and two Lake Kyoga landings situated within the region. Lake Victoria landings account for approximately 54% and 66% of the region's fresh and processed fish production, respectively. Majanji, with its excellent road connection into Busia Town, is by far the largest of the Region's Lake Victoria landings. However, only about one-third of its production is marketed within Tororo Region. The other major Lake Victoria landings, Buraba, Bumalenge, and Kandenge, also appear to channel most of their catches outside of the region.
Opeta and Daraja, lying within the Lake Kyoga complex, each contribute substantial volumes of fish, particularly fresh tilapia (ngege). It is possible however that these two sites are receiving fish which would normally be channelled through other landings in adjacent areas, now out of operation because of civil insecurity.
For July 1989, the supply figures suggest that tilapia was the most important fish species marketed in the region. During that month, about 189 tonnes of fresh and processed (mostly smoked) ngege were recorded to have moved from various sources (both within and without the region) through the different markets, as against a total of some 109 tonnes of mputa, or Nile perch (Table 3).2 The pattern wherein total processed fish tonnages exceed those of fresh, and total tilapia tonnages exceed those of Nile perch, appears to hold over longer term periods as well. With reference to the Tororo, Busia, and Malaba town markets, for example, records for the 12 month period from August 1988 to July 1989 indicate that tilapia consistently led in tonnages over the entire year. They also indicate that consistently more processed than fresh fish was available, with the exception of Malaba Market supplies (Tables 4, 5, and 6; Figures 1 – 6).
Except for the problems of insecurity which continue to hamper commerce in certain areas around Lake Kyoga, the fish marketing system appears to be well established within the Region. Transportation is fairly reliable, due to the existence of a number of good all-weather roads and the abundance of pick-ups and especially of bicycles. Tororo, Busia, and Pallisa, along with some of the smaller markets, serve as wholesale centres for the supply of satellite village “micro-markets.” A distinct group of fish middle agents exists, and their numbers are supplemented by many part-time operators within the trading network. Fish consumption is popular and has a long established history in the major towns and the area which fringes the lakes. In more remote hinterland areas, it has gained considerably in popularity within the last decade or so, owing to the increased availability of both fresh and cured products, and the decreased availability of alternative forms of animal protein such as beef. In general, consumer preferences do not seem to pose serious constraints on the distribution and marketing of fish products in the region.
2.1 Tororo Market
Situated in the middle of town, Tororo Market is a large establishment with a total of 57 fish stalls, with an average of two fishmongers operating per stall. Fisheries staff assigned duties here include one FA and an AFDO who also supervises the FA stationed at the nearby Malaba Market on the border with Kenya. Supplies are delivered every Monday and Thursday by two and sometimes three lorries. For Tororo Town and the other border markets of Malaba and Busia, it is reported that the office of the District Administrator imposes restrictions on the quantities of fish sold in an effort to discourage large volumes of fresh and especially processed products from seeping outside the domestic market. The effectiveness of these measures is not known, however.
Consignments of fish delivered at Tororo Town Market are mainly processed tilapia and Nile perch from Bukungu and Kiwongoire on Lake Kyoga, and fresh Nile perch from Masese and Majanji on Lake Victoria (Tables 1 – 4, Figures 1 – 2). Masese is also a major supplier of fresh tilapia. Other species seen at the market on the day of visit included Rastrineobola argentea (mukene, locally) and Protopterus, both coming from Masese. Smoked Nile perch and Protopterus are also said to be regularly supplied from Masese. More rarely, fresh and smoked Clarias and Bagrus are provided from this source. Little if any tilapia is delivered from Majanji, apparently because most of this fish is transferred directly across the water into Kenya markets.
Tororo Market serves as a major distribution centre for other markets in the area, in addition to functioning as a retail outlet. Almost all of the fish destined for the Malaba Market first passes through Tororo, and eight minor markets (Buyemba, Kibenga, Kwapa, Tuba, Merikit, Kalait, Apokor, and Nagongera) also receive their supplies through this point.
A brief observation of fish prices at Tororo Market revealed the breakdowns shown in Table 10. Fresh fish (ngege and mputa) were considerably cheaper than all forms of meat on a per kilogramme basis, but only smoked mputa proved to be cheaper or at least on a par with the lowest meat prices (i.e. for beef) amongst the processed fish products. Prices for mukene were observed to decrease with increases in volume measure used. The fresh mputa from Lake Kyoga, sold whole and averaging 0.3kg, were cheaper than the larger fresh Nile perch from Lake Victoria, which were being sold in pieces. Major factors influencing prices of fresh Nile perch were reported to be volume of supply and whether the seller had the possibility of frying any leftover pieces at the close of business in the evening, thus preserving the stock for sale on following days.
Both the fresh and processed fish dealers have organised committees to represent their respective interests. Each of the chairmen were briefly interviewed, and both reported that the lack of adequate storage facilities constituted a major constraint to the fish trade in Tororo.
2.2 Buliro Station and Busolwe Market
Busolwe Trading Centre lies some 30 km northwest of Tororo, and some 6 km from the railway station at Buliro, on the Jinja-Tororo line. The team chose to visit this area to gather impressions of marketing activities in more remote parts of the region. Bulsowe typifies many of the trading centres scattered through the central part of Tororo Region in a broad path that extends on either side of the railway line as it passes out of Iganga Town in Jinja Region and curves in a long loop well to the north of the Jinja-Tororo road. In passing along this line every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, trains from Jinja pause at several stations and stops, including those of Busembatia, Bungoria, Budumba, Buliro (Busolwe), Katajora, Nagongera, and Kisoko. A final and unofficial stop, sometimes referred to as “Panya Halt,” is made just outside of Tororo Town.
At every one of these places, a very considerable trade in both fresh and processed fish is conducted during the few minutes of a train's stopover. The train thus serves as a kind of “fish market on wheels” for local residents as well as the thousands of people who live in dispersed settlements or smaller villages at a further remove from the line of rail, since fish from the trains eventually filters its way through to minor markets and remote homesteads. Train crew as well as regular fishmongers are involved with this moveable market. The crew can serve as middle agents between suppliers from Masese and buyers along the route, or they can act directly as suppliers themselves. Regular fishmongers load their consignments at Jinja and accompany them to the particular market destinations from which they wish to operate.
If the Buliro experience can be taken as indicative, then the arrival of the train from Jinja occasions a good deal of excited activity at the minor stations and stops. Crowds begin to gather well before 1700 hours, when the train is officially scheduled to arrive. Actual running times are somewhat flexible, so that the train arrives earlier on some days, later on others. When it does come, however, a terrific commotion ensues as buyers scramble to strike deals from sellers on the train. Fresh fish are displayed enticingly over the heads of the crowd by those standing in the guard van or at the windows of the carriages, and sales are transacted when attractive bids are forthcoming from the most eager buyers. Other dealers offload heavy baskets of smoked fish which they have shipped on the baggage wagon, or, if they have been waiting for delivery through some prior arrangement, simply pick them up from the train attendants.
The buying and selling activity shifts to an adjacent open market area once the train has moved on from Buliro Station towards Tororo. Trading is done at both the wholesale and retail level, involves dozens of dealers, and carries on almost until dark. Wholesalers buy larger consignments for resale at outlying markets. The team noticed that a large proportion of the fish being sold in either a fresh or smoked state consisted of juvenile Nile perch. It was obvious that these fish were being caught in very small mesh-size nets, such as one finds in the cod-ends of beach seines.
The sheer quantity of fish being traded at Buliro was impressive. The team estimated that a total of close to a tonne came off the train which passed during the evening of the visit, all destined for Busolwe and various minor markets, eventually to find its way into innumerable households across an extremely wide area of the countryside. Local traders and residents confirmed that what the team witnessed was a routine event, and that the volume of fish seen was typical. If this is the case, then the railway is proving to be a real lifeline for the residents of the the central corridor of Tororo Region. The Busolwe area alone is receiving a total of perhaps three tonnes of fresh and processed fish in the course of a week. If similar volumes are being offloaded at the other stops along the way from Iganga, then it is reasonable to suppose that fish traders are using the train to transfer anywhere from 20 to 25 tonnes of fish per week from Jinja to communities along the line up to Tororo Town -- communities that would otherwise find it difficult to obtain such supplies, since they are often isolated and poorly served by access roads.
Two further points which became strongly apparent from interviews with local residents were the change in people's eating habits and the wider availability of fish in the area over the last ten to fifteen years. Although fish was traditionally part of people's diets in Bunyole, it never played a very important role and chiefly involved limited quantities of catfish (endulaga or emale), lungfish (emonye), and tilapia (ngege) caught by hook and line or trapped in and around papyrus swamps. These days fish constitutes the major source of animal protein for most people of the area, owing to a variety of factors. For one thing, because of the many years of civil unrest, mismanagement of the economy, and general breakdown of infrastructure and services, there has been a great decline in the availability of meat products like beef, goat, sheep, and pork. While prices of such commodities have tended to stay high, people's buying power has remained low. Formerly, cotton was an extremely important source of income to farmers within the district. But the chronic failure of local ginneries, under the Lint Marketing Board, to pay for harvests in an adequate and timely fashion, led to widespread abandonment of the crop.3
At the same time that these developments were taking place, large quantities of mputa began to become available from the Lake Victoria fishery, at prices which were much more readily affordable to most local families than those of meat or poultry. Easy to obtain through the convenient railway connection, capable of being stored and sold off over the course of several days in its smoked form, and quite palatable, mputa soon began to loom large in the diets of local folk…to the point that they now widely regard it as a blessing which is seeing them through difficult times.
Certainly there was a very enthusiastic trade in Nile perch products in progress at Busolwe Market on the morning following the arrival of the train at Buliro. The team talked to a number of traders who had been interviewed the previous evening near the station. These individuals were now either retailing their consignments directly or partitioning them further in order to sell to other traders, who in turn planned to carry loads to still more remote micro-markets. The wholesalers had carried large bisero (sing. kisero) or baskets of smoked mputa weighing between 100 to 200 kg on the train from Jinja. There were about 36 traders active in the market at the time of visit, 9 of whom were women. All traders pay market dues of UShs 100/- per day to operate their stalls and selling tables. The long distance traders from Jinja require a special license of UShs 5000/- for their business. Here as in other local markets, fish is sold whole or by the piece, and price is determined by size, with some room for negotiation between buyer and seller. Prices per kilogramme were estimated during the visit and are recorded in Table 10, along with fixed local prices for poultry and meat then current.
2.3 Busia Market
Busia Market is one of the largest fish markets in the country, owing both to its rôle as a chief gateway for exports into Kenya, and to the fact that it serves as a retail centre to a major town and a wholesale distribution centre for a number of outlying minor markets. The current market site, in the northern part of Busia Town, was only established a few years back. The overall market is large and complex, and offers produce and goods of all descriptions. The fish section has 58 stalls for processed (smoked, dried, and fried) products and 32 stalls for fresh products. Each of the stalls for processed fish has a small storage facility included. Three sellers typically operate at each of the stalls. Marketing activities are overseen by a team of two FAs who work with the support of the Busia District Fisheries Office, under the supervision of the Regional Office in Tororo. The effectiveness of the entire team effort is obvious in the layout of the fish market stalls, the high level of cleanliness and care in handling achieved, and the way in which each group of workers and vendors, whether they be delivery agents, porters, stall owners, wholesale buyers, fish fryers, or stall block leaders, co-operates fully with Fishery staff and willingly abides by the agreed upon procedures. The team was of the view that this market is probably the best organised and most hygenic of those seen anywhere in the country thus far in the course of the SEC reconnoitering tours.
The market handles large quantities of fresh and processed fish from both Lake Victoria and Lake Kyoga (Table 5, Figures 3 and 4). Retail selling takes place every day, while wholesale deliveries of processed fish are made only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. Deliveries of processed fish are made by ten traders who have been specifically licensed to engage in the business and have been allocated specific days upon which they may make deliveries. Fresh fish are delivered by four suppliers who again have been issued with specific licenses, but who are free to make deliveries on a daily basis.
Processed fish suppliers were noted as follows:
Busia Fish Marketing Society. Registered in 1984 with 47 members, it delivers a pick-up load of 4000–5000 tilapia from Kiwongoire Landing on Lake Kyoga every Monday. Members also operate two stalls and one off-loading slab at the market.
Jambo Fishing Company. Established in 1980, this company delivers a lorry load of tilapia, amounting to some 15,000 fish, from Bukungu on Lake Kyoga on Saturdays. The company also owns 25 fishing boats and operates one stall in the market.
Mathias Okumu and Company. This company has 15 shareholders and delivers one pick-up load amounting to 7000–8000 fish, mainly tilapia, from Lwampanga on Lake Kyoga on Saturdays. It operates 9 stalls and one off-loading ramp at the market.
David Kakongolire/Budiope Company delivers a lorry load of fish, mainly tilapia with some Nile perch, from Bukungu on Lake Kyoga on Wednesdays. It owns one stall in the market.
Nagongera Fish Traders delivers one lorry load of tilapia and some Nile perch from Bukungu on Wednesdays.
Bbina Multi-Purpose is licensed to deliver from Bukungu but is currently not operating.
Kidera United Fishmongers is from Lwampanga Landing but is not operating at this time.
Lwampanga Fish Co-op Society delivers one lorry of fish, mostly smoked and sun-dried tilapia, from Lwampanga on Mondays.
Nagalama Fish Traders. This company is from Bukungu but is not operating at the present time.
Samia Bugwe Fishmongers Company delivers one pick-up load of tilapia from Lwampanga on Wednesdays. It also owns two stalls and two off-loading slabs in the market.
The four fresh fish suppliers are as follows:
Boniface Kakooza. This company holds two licences; one for delivering tilapia and Nile perch from Masese and the other from Kiyindi, both on Lake Victoria.
John Mulumba holds one licence and delivers tilapia and Nile perch from Masese.
Idirisa Kalume delivers tilapia from Bukungu and Iyingo on Lake Kyoga.
The team conducted a brief survey of current prices of all products and noted them as shown in Table 10. It was observed that whole smoked Nile perch derived almost exclusively from Lake Kyoga landings, whereas larger fish which had been cut into pieces before smoking were those from Lake Victoria. Traders explained that the Kyoga fish in general tended to be of smaller size and less oily in texture. After smoking they have a shelf life of about one week, as compared to the heavier and oilier pieces of Victoria perch, which were said to last only three days.
Lake Kyoga supplies significant quantities of sun-dried tilapia to Busia Market as well. These juvenile fish, known locally as bambala, are sold in three different grades, “Grade 1” fetching the highest prices and “Grade 3” the lowest. Smoked Kyoga Protopterus were also in evidence on the day of visit, along with large amounts of sun-dried mukene ( = R. argentea) from Sigulu Islands, Iganga District, on Lake Victoria.
As mentioned above, there is an active export trade to Kenya which passes through Busia. The team had an opportunity of examining recent records of this traffic as kept by both the Customs and the Fisheries Departments. Over the course of the six month period January – June 1989, there were six firms officially involved in the export trade and together they moved about 145 tonnes of fish across the border. It is evident that there are some discrepancies between the enumerations of the two departments, with the Customs records reflecting somewhat lower volumes than those found in the Fisheries records (Table 6).
During the current financial year, which began on the first of July, only three firms have thus far taken out specific export licenses. These are as listed below.
Lira Enterprises/Samia Bugwe Fishmongers, based at Burgiri, which exports smoked and sun-dried tilapia from Bukungu once a week.
Bukedea Hides and Skins Co. of Kampala, which exports smoked and sun-dried tilapia once a week from Bukungu.
Fred Sebina S & J Enterprises of Kampala, which exports smoked and sun-dried tilapis from Kampala markets and Bukungu twice a week.
In addition to the officially enumerated exports, much of the fish sold at Busia Market is reckoned to find its way across the border via small-scale buyers. The true volume of export is therefore thought to be substantially higher than that implied by the official figures.
2.4 Malaba Market
The team did not have an opportunity to visit Malaba Market during the tour. However, Regional Office records on supplies and types of fish handled were examined for the period between August 1988 and July 1989. This information is summarised in Table 7 and Figures 5 and 6.
On the day of the team's visit to Mbale Town, the RFO was visiting Entebbe Fisheries Headquarters and was thus not available to provide a briefing. Fortunately, however, the AFDO was present and a tour of the Mbale Market was made with him. The Regional records for recent months were examined later, back in Entebbe.
Mbale Market handles mainly smoked and dried fish, deriving from both Lake Kyoga and Lake Victoria sources. Deliveries are made on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, coming mainly from four wholesale suppliers -- namely, Mbale Fish Supply Co. Ltd., Masaba and Sons Co. Ltd., Namutsi Fishmongers Co. Ltd., and Mungu Agaba Fish Marketing Co. Ltd. Processed fish are sold throughout the day, everyday. For the month of July 1989, the total tonnage of smoked and dried products channelled through the market amounted to some 117 tonnes (Table 8).
Fresh fish comes in during the late afternoons, and derives primarily from the Lake Victoria landings of Masese, Kiyindi, and Majanji. Tilapia and Nile perch are regularly delivered by two pick-ups and one refrigerated van. About 31 tonnes of fresh fish were supplied to Mbale Market during July 1989 (Table 8).
The market is large and handles a very great volume of business. Over the one year period from August 1988 to July 1989, the average monthly volume of fresh fish handled was about 54 tonnes, and of processed fish about 172 tonnes (Table 9, Fig. 7). Contrary to the situation in Tororo Region, Nile perch products are supplied in far greater volumes than those of tilapia (Figure 8).
In addition to catering for a busy retail trade, Mbale Town Market also serves as an important wholesale centre, whence supplies are distributed to smaller markets scattered throughout the region. These latter include Namataba, Maluku, Nkoma, Moni, Bugema, Sironko, Luluda, Budadiri, Nakaloke, Kabwangazi, and Budaka. Virtually all of the Region's fish supply seems to pass through Mbale Market and is presumably enumerated by the Fisheries staff posted there. However, available recent records (summarised in Tables 8 and 9), do not provide information on volumes channelled to the respective minor markets. Also records only seem to be available for the main species, mputa and ngege, even though other fish, especially mukene, are channelled through in considerable quantities.
During the team's visit a meeting was held with a group of about 20 traders of the Mbale Fishmongers Association, along with their Chairman, the AFDO, and the Market Master. The traders were briefed on the purpose of our visit, and of the Project in general. In the ensuing discussion, a number of traders stressed that they had to contend with serious problems of inadequate storage and re-processing facilities at the market. Maggot-infested samples of smoked fish were displayed, and it was reported that such infestation is quite a common occurrence. It does seem that the space available for processed fish sales is rather limited. There are a total of 32 stalls for these sales, and traders generally pair up to share one stall. However, there are only 12 stalls which were properly and permanently constructed as fish sale counters, and of these, only 5 have any storage space. Reference was made to somewhat indefinite plans to move the processed fish sale area outside of the market to new premises where more keeping facilities could be provided for, and preservation kilns built.
Observations of the different fish stalls and discussions with a number of their attendants revealed that both smoked and sun-dried tilapia, smoked Nile perch, and sun-dried R. argentea dominated the market in processed fish. The amount of mukene available was quite impressive. Fried Nile perch, or sabulenya was also seen -- the converted product of leftover fresh fish consignments of the day before. Traders also reported that limited supplies of smoked Protopterus, Bagrus, Clarias, Synodontis, and Momyrus are available on a very occasional basis. None of these species were seen for sale on the day of visit, but mats of dried Haplochromis spp. (locally known as nkejje) were observed. As in markets elsewhere, these nkejje are skewered on small sticks, usually about ten fish per stick; ten such skewers are tied in parallel rows to form a kind of scroll or mat for distribution and sale. Customers have the choice of buying one whole mat, or individual sticks.
Prices of the various products observed during the visit are indicated in Table 10. It is noteworthy that the per kilogramme price for both fresh and processed Nile perch is higher than that for the equivalent tilapia products.
Traders must allow for the market fees which they are assessed in setting their asking prices for fish. At present the market authorities charge an entry fee of UShs 200/- or 400/- for processed fish, depending upon the size of the incoming load. A flat rate of UShs 200/- is charged per basket of fresh fish. Other charges include market dues of UShs 200/- per day for a stall with a store, UShs 140/- for a stall without a store, and UShs 100/- for a “pitch”, or simple table space.
Just across the street to the south of the market is a small plot upon which the Italian-funded Integrated Fish Development Programme (see SEC Fld Rpt 3) has constructed its Mbale Centre for the sale and refrigerated storage of fresh fish and cold-smoked Nile perch fillets. The unit includes a water purification plant, diesel-powered stand-by electric generators, a filleting and cleaning table, and cold storage/freezing compartments. At a rough guess, the cost for the entire facility must amount to several hundred thousand US dollars. The team only came to know about the unit after visiting the market: no mention was made of its existence during the meeting with local fish traders. The extent to which its operation, to commence shortly, will have an impact on the local fish trade does not appear to have been determined very exactly. Presumably the effects will not be adverse insofar as the processed product is concerned. The preparation, handling, and distribution of cold-smoked fillets entails considerable overhead costs and requires support from buyers who are prepared to pay premium prices. Certainly the vast majority of those who make up the fish-buying population of the Mbale area do not fit such a customer profile. Indeed, it is questionable whether there will be sufficient business to support the unit.
Several notable points emerging from the SEC team's preliminary survey of fish marketing and distribution in Tororo and Mbale Regions may be reiterated by way of conclusion to this report. It is clear first of all from the most recent statistical tabulations that both regions are net importers of fish products -- marketing and consumption zones rather than production zones. In the case of Tororo, this circumstance is somewhat surprising on the face of it since the region contains significant landing sites along the shorelines of both Lake Victoria and Lake Kyoga. The most likely explanation appears to be that of simple geography -- i.e., the proximity of the large Western Kenya market for both fresh and processed fish. Insofar as the Lake Victoria landings are concerned, and particularly in the case of the major landing of Majanji, it is probable that a large proportion of the fish caught in Ugandan waters never gets enumerated by the Fisheries Department because it is transferred on an informal basis directly to Kenya destinations. Lake Kyoga fish, and especially processed tilapia, are subject to strong demand at and across the border. Consignments of Kyoga fish may be recorded in the marketing statistics of Tororo, but this does not mean that they are being consumed within the Region. At least some of these consignments are in reality nothing more than transit goods, with the Region merely serving as their shipping corridor.
A review of supplies over the course of the twelve month period from August 1988 to July 1989 revealed that processed fish tonnages far outstripped those of fresh fish for the high volume markets of Tororo and Busia towns (Figures 1 and 3), and that total supplies (both processed and fresh) of tilapia were substantially greater than those of Nile perch (Figures 2 and 4).
For Mbale Region, processed fish were also available in far greater quantities than fresh over the same one-year period (Figure 7). However, it is Nile perch and not tilapia which consistently leads as the principal species supplied at the Mbale Town Market (Figure 8).
It is suspected that some double-counting is occurring in the compilation of the marketing returns for Tororo Region. It seems redundant, for example, to report that Tororo and Busia towns are sources of supply, since any consignments of fish arriving in those places presumably would already have been recorded under figures for particular landings.
On the other hand, under-counting may be occurring as well, particularly when it comes to the enumeration of “Other species.” It is evident from direct observation that a very considerable traffic exists in dried mukene, or R. argentea, in the Busia and Mbale markets. For Busia, it is questionable whether all of this traffic is being registered. Total market throughput recorded for the twelve month period examined in the files seemed on the low side. For Mbale, despite the obvious importance of the product to consumers and the large quantities on sale, there are apparently no records on mukene traffic whatsoever. The Mbale records reviewed also ignore the marketing of other species besides R. argentea, although it may well be that their occurrence is incidental.
In terms of prices (Table 10), it was noticed that fresh fish were on the whole substantially cheaper than either meat or poultry. In Tororo, fresh fish prices ranged from UShs. 100/kg to 300/kg whereas beef was selling for UShs 500/kg, goat meat for 600/kg, and chicken for about 850/kg. In Busia, fresh fish were selling at prices two to three times cheaper than meat, and three to four times cheaper than poultry. The price of processed fish was found to vary from two to six times above the price of fresh. Somewhat surprisingly, in view of the common notion that tilipia is the far more favoured dish, fresh Nile perch prices appeared to be either on a par or slightly more expensive than those of fresh ngege. Smoked mputa were also about the same or somewhat more expensive per kg than smoked tilapia in Mbale and Tororo, though not in the border market of Busia.
At nearly all the market sites visited, it was clear that a considerable proportion of the fish being sold were of juvenile sizes. Sun-dried juvenile tilapia, or bambala, were much in evidence. Whole-smoked juvenile Nile perch were likewise seen in abundance. The question is raised therefore as to what methods and gear are being employed by fisherfolk operating out of the various Victoria and Kyoga landing sites.
Finally, the team was impressed with the degree to which fish are penetrating to the more remote parts of the countryside. The rural folk with whom interviews were held were almost unanimous in their positive regard for mputa, the supply of which has fortunately been on the ascendancy at a time when acute shortages of meat products have developed, largely due to failures in the livestock production and support service sectors. The extent to which the railway from Jinja functions as a moveable fish market serving rural communities of the central Tororo Region corridor is certainly remarkable and needs to be more fully documented. It may well be that rather prodigious quantities of fish are being moved into the Region through this means without being registered at all in the marketing records. If this is indeed the case, than it constitutes another major instance of under-enumeration in the statistical collection system.
